World Series Final Game Captures 51M Viewers In the US, Canada and Japanese Markets.
The nail-biting 11-inning contest that saw the Dodgers defeat the Blue Jays 5-4 drew a aggregate 51 million watchers in the United States, Canadian, and Japan territories. Major League Baseball stated this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown featuring the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
Last Saturday’s epic game averaged 27.33 million viewers on Fox Sports channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. According to Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated program of the previous week.
It also is the most-watched Fall Classic matchup since the 2017 Game 7 involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros, which averaged 29.07M. This marks a 16% improvement compared to the previous finale between the Nationals and Astros, which drew 23.19 million viewers.
In the weekly rankings, the sixth game ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked 7th, the fifth game came in eighth, and the third game finished in thirteenth position.
International Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the climactic game recorded over 11 million watchers on Sportsnet and the French TVA Sports channel. This was the highest-rated English broadcast in the country since the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 p.m. in the local time zone, it averaged 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – in which World Series MVP Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – averaged over 13 million viewers, making it the most-watched Fall Classic game on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The full seven-game series drew over 15.7 million audience members on the Fox network, a 2% rise from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees series. This represents the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the Fall Classic has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Including the opening game telecast on Univision, the total US average was 16.1 million. The total Fall Classic viewership in the Japanese market was 9.7M and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 drew 8.09M viewers, an 8% rise compared to last year and the network’s strongest postseason performance since 2017.
Major League Baseball stated that the Fall Classic was broadcast in over 200 countries and territories by forty-four broadcasting partners in sixteen various languages.